Daniel Laatsch

The Athletic’s Jesse Granger, Sean McIndoe and Scott Wheeler are taking a deep dive into each team’s goaltending situation league-wide, ranking clubs’ “current and future goaltending outlooks” via a combination of current aptitude, prospect strength, and the effectiveness of their NHL tandem’s contracts. In their first installment, detailing the bottom 10 teams in their ranking, the Blue Jackets took home the honor of having the worst overall situation between the pipes.

Columbus does have some decent up-and-comers, namely Jet Greaves. The 23-year-old checks in as one of the more intriguing third-string options in the league entering 2024-25, posting strong AHL numbers and sporting a .912 SV% in 10 appearances behind a subpar CBJ defense the last two seasons. Wheeler shouts out 2022 fifth-round pick Sergei Ivanov, who posted a .928 SV% in 33 games for the Kontinental Hockey League’s Admiral Vladivostok last season, as a bright spot too. But de facto starter Elvis Merzļikins carrying a $5.4MM cap hit through 2027, despite posting a cumulative .889 SV% and -32.7 GSAA the past two seasons, led McIndoe to list Columbus as having the worst contractual situation in the league among netminders. On straight-up current skill, Granger ranked their tandem of Merzļikins and Tarasov at 30th in the league.

Other notes as the NHL’s offseason continues:

• The Penguins are optimistic about the future of defense prospect Daniel Laatsch, who’s entering his senior season at Wisconsin after being selected by Pittsburgh in the seventh round back in 2021. Speaking to Seth Rorabaugh of the Tribune-Review, Penguins director of player development Tom Kostopoulos implied that the team considered signing Laatsch to his entry-level contract this summer but said the “decision was made for him to go back” for his final season with the Badgers. Kostopoulos praised the 22-year-old as having “the best defensive stick in college hockey.” He added that Laatsch has to “get stronger and keep working on the meanness to his game, but we think there is an NHL role for him.”
• Also in The Athletic today, Arpon Basu looks at what needs to go right for the Canadiens to play meaningful games late this season, jumping out of the consistent bottom-five finishes that have plagued them the past few years. Montreal has been one of the quieter teams this offseason, with only minor trades in store and depth forward Alex Barré-Boulet standing as their most consequential UFA pickup. A healthy Kirby Dach, jumps in production from first-line wingers Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky, and a “meaningful” rookie season from at least one of top prospects Lane Hutson, Logan Mailloux or David Reinbacher on the blueline are a few of the keys Basu articulates.